Speech recognition system for managing telemeetings

Abstract

An automated meeting facilitator [109] manages and archives a telemeeting. The automated meeting facilitator includes a multimedia indexing section [220], a memory section [230], and a server [240]. The automated meeting facilitator may connect to meeting participants [102] through a network. The multimedia indexing section [220] generates rich transcriptions of the telemeeting and stores documents related to the telemeeting. Through the rich transcription, the automated meeting facilitator is able to provide a number of real-time search and assistance functions to the meeting participants.

What is claimed:  
     
         1 . A method for facilitating a telemeeting, the method comprising: 
 recording contributions of a plurality of participants in the telemeeting;    automatically transcribing the contributions of the participants to obtain a telemeeting transcription; and    making the telemeeting transcription available to the participants while the telemeeting is ongoing.    
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein making the telemeeting transcription available to the participants includes: 
 accepting search queries from the participants, and    searching the telemeeting transcription based on the search queries.    
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein making the telemeeting transcription available to the participants includes: 
 accepting search queries from the participants, and    returning answers to the search queries based on the telemeeting transcription.    
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising: 
 providing on-line assistance to the participants during the course of the telemeeting.    
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 4 , wherein the on-line assistance includes automatically contacting a person identified by one of the participants of the telemeeting.  
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the telemeeting transcription is a rich transcription that includes at least one of: speaker identification information and topic classification information.  
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising: 
 storing documents identified by the participants as being related to the telemeeting.    
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 7 , wherein the documents include at least one of: meeting agendas, position papers, design documents, and proposals.  
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising: 
 storing at least one of emails and voicemails exchanged prior to the telemeeting and relating to the telemeeting.    
     
     
         10 . An automated telemeeting facilitator comprising: 
 indexers configured to receive multimedia streams generated by participants in a telemeeting and generate rich transcriptions corresponding to the multimedia streams;    a memory system configured to store the rich transcriptions and the multimedia streams; and    a server computer system coupled to the memory system and configured to answer requests from the participants relating to items previously discussed in the telemeeting based on the rich transcriptions.    
     
     
         11 . The automated telemeeting facilitator of  claim 10 , wherein the memory system is configured to additionally store at least one of emails and voicemails exchanged prior to the telemeeting and relating to the telemeeting.  
     
     
         12 . The automated telemeeting facilitator of  claim 11 , wherein the memory system is configured to additionally store documents identified by the participants as being related to the telemeeting.  
     
     
         13 . The automated telemeeting facilitator of  claim 12 , wherein the documents include at least one of: meeting agendas, position papers, design documents, and proposals.  
     
     
         14 . The automated telemeeting facilitator of  claim 12 , wherein the server computer provides searchable access to the rich transcriptions and the documents after conclusion of the telemeeting.  
     
     
         15 . The automated telemeeting facilitator of  claim 10 , wherein the indexers include an audio indexer that comprises: 
 statistical acoustic and language models, and    a recognition system that generates the rich transcriptions based on the statistical acoustic and language models.    
     
     
         16 . The automated telemeeting facilitator of  claim 15 , wherein the recognition system comprises at least one of audio classification logic, speech recognition logic, speaker clustering logic, speaker identification logic, name spotting logic, and topic classification logic.  
     
     
         17 . The automated telemeeting facilitator of  claim 10 , wherein the server is further configured to provide on-line assistance to the participants during the telemeeting.  
     
     
         18 . The automated telemeeting facilitator of  claim 17 , wherein the on-line assistance includes automatically contacting a person identified by one of the participants of the telemeeting.  
     
     
         19 . A system comprising: 
 means for connecting a plurality of participants in a telemeeting;    means for recording conversations of the participants, as recorded conversations, during the telemeeting;    means for transcribing the recorded conversations of the participants to form transcribed conversations;    means for receiving, during the telemeeting, queries from the participants relating to the transcribed conversations of the participants; and    means for responding to the queries based on the transcribed conversations.    
     
     
         20 . The system of  claim 19 , further comprising: 
 means for storing non-conversational data related to the telemeeting, the non-conversational data including at least one of emails, meeting agendas, position papers, and design documents.    
     
     
         21 . The system of  claim 20 , further comprising: 
 means for making the non-conversational data, the transcribed conversations, and the recorded conversations available to users for review after conclusion of the telemeeting.    
     
     
         22 . A method comprising: 
 storing documents related to a telemeeting;    storing multimedia data of the telemeeting;    generating transcription information corresponding to the multimedia data;    storing the transcription information; and    providing the documents, the multimedia data, and the transcription information to users based on user requests.    
     
     
         23 . The method of  claim 22 , wherein the transcription information is a rich transcription that includes at least one of: speaker identification information and topic classification information.  
     
     
         24 . The method of  claim 22 , wherein providing the documents, the multimedia data, and the transcription information to users based on user requests is performed after conclusion of the telemeeting.  
     
     
         25 . The method of  claim 22 , further comprising: 
 accepting search queries from participants of the telemeeting while the telemeeting is in progress; and    searching the transcription information based on the search queries.    
     
     
         26 . The method of  claim 22 , further comprising: 
 accepting search queries from participants of the telemeeting while the telemeeting is in progress; and    returning answers to the search queries based on the transcription information.    
     
     
         27 . The method of  claim 22 , further comprising: 
 providing on-line assistance to participants of the telemeeting during the telemeeting.    
     
     
         28 . The method of  claim 27 , wherein the on-line assistance includes automatically contacting a person identified by one of the participants of the telemeeting.  
     
     
         29 . The method of  claim 22 , wherein the documents include at least one of: meeting agendas, position papers, design documents, and proposals.  
     
     
         30 . A computer-readable medium containing programming instructions for execution by a processor, the computer readable medium comprising: 
 instructions for recording conversations of a plurality of participants in a meeting;    instructions for transcribing the conversations of the plurality of participants to obtain a meeting transcription, the meeting transcription including metadata that identifies when a particular one of the participants is speaking; and    instructions for responding to queries relating to the meeting transcription during the course of the meeting.    
     
     
         31 . The computer-readable medium of  claim 30 , wherein the instructions for responding to queries include: 
 instructions for accepting search queries from the participants, and    instructions for searching the meeting transcription based on the search queries.    
     
     
         32 . The computer-readable medium of  claim 30 , wherein the instructions for responding to queries include: 
 instructions for accepting search queries from the participants, and    instructions for returning answers to the search queries based on the meeting transcription.    
     
     
         33 . The computer-readable medium of  claim 30 , further comprising: 
 instructions for providing on-line assistance to the participants during the meeting.    
     
     
         34 . The computer-readable medium of  claim 33 , wherein the on-line assistance includes automatically contacting a person identified by one of the participants of the meeting.  
     
     
         35 . The computer-readable medium of  claim 30 , further comprising: 
 instructions for storing documents identified by the participants as being related to the meeting.    
     
     
         36 . The computer-readable medium of  claim 35 , wherein the documents include at least one of: meeting agendas, position papers, design documents, and proposals.